Tune Book 1: Vanishing Point - Derek Kirk Kim

Andy Go is in college studying art for the past three years, and with 1 year left he decides to drop out.  He thinks he doesn't need to finish and he's good enough to make it in the real world.  Two months later he's sitting at home doing nothing but watch television.  His parents finally intervene and tell him he has a week to find a job or he's kicked out of the house.  As he is resting in the park before the next interview he runs into his old friend and crush, Yumi.  They talk and she shows him her sketch book.  When Yumi forgets her sketch book Andy reads it.  He discovers that Yumi is in love with him.  He runs around town saying she loves me, getting weird looks from everyone.  He heads to his last interview.  Although they look human the two people are from a parallel Earth called Praxis.  They want living human specimans for their zoo instead of boring objects that do nothing at all.  At first Andy thinks that all of this is crazy, but after he thinks it over he signs the contract.  He then leaves Earth and goes to Praxis where the real adventure begins.

This book had me laughing just about every page.  Anyone who has gone to college knows someone like Andy.  I can't wait for volume 2 to see what happens to Andy.

T.B.
12/17/12

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Probably, I am just weary of dystopic and apocalyptic novels for teens, so I was not especially thrilled with this one. Bird flu has evolved into an especially virulent form and is still evolving, still raging at books end. Most of the people in the world have perished in this epidemic. Young children, teens, a few elderly people and rare badly scared survivors are all that remain alive. There have been catastrophic earthquakes, floods, tsunami's as well. And, there are the sweepers who gather up the sick, dying, dead and tend to them. But, recently they have been carting off apparently still healthy individuals using mean dogs to hunt them down. Lucy has been surviving on her own since her family died. Aidan discovers her and asks her to join his small community of survivors, which she does when yet another tsunami wipes out the area in which she lived. Sweepers come and kidnap some in the community. A couple escape this time, something that suspiciously has never happened before. One of the escapees persuades Lucy, Aidan and some of the others to go on a rescue mission to bring back others who were stolen. Its a trap to get Lucy who has some sort of special immunity to the flu and who doctors want to study. The place they are held in resembles more of a prison than a research hospital, they are drugged and locked in. With the help of the one who set them up, now repentant, and an apparently friendly former school nurse Lucy, Aidan and the others escape. The doctor in charge is perhaps mad or crazy. An so the life of barely surviving goes on. I assume there will be more books in the future. I suspect Lucy will by rather like an Eve figure. She undoubtedly has whatever it takes to survive even the evolving flu and start a family which could help repopulate the world.
jdw 12/30/11

THOSE THAT WAKE by Jesse Karp

There has been an increase in certain activities in one area of the world that is leading to the people either appearing vacant headed (zombie like) or becoming quite violent. The phenomenon is spreading. A few older teens, a school teacher, a researcher who has come to the area to study the phenomenon and its meaning, have seemingly not been affected. One went home from school, celled her traveling parents only to discover they no longer knew she existed, when she returned to school to document her existence, all evidence had vanished as if it never was. All these folks eventually find out that their lives have been expunged. They no longer have lives. They meet each other when they find themselves in some sort of surreal forested area with an assassin. No matter where they go, the end up back where they started.
All but one escapes back into the changed real world after the assassin is eliminated. They embark on a journey to get their lives back. In the end, it appears that at least two have done so, but perhaps only appears. What exactly is going on here, well it feels like it could really happen, or be happening right now. There is a lot to think about in this unusual futuristic, dystopic, scary novel. I enjoyed it a lot. A thoughtful teen reader should as well.